Method for reconstructing mortality by educational groups

László Németh,Henrik Brønnum-Hansen,Domantas Jasilionis,Dmitri A Jdanov

doi:10.1186/s12963-021-00264-1

László Németh, Henrik Brønnum-Hansen + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12963-021-00264-1

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Abstract

BackgroundThe lack of classification by educational attainment in death and population exposure data at older ages is an important constraint for studying changes and patterns of mortality disparities by education in Denmark and Sweden. The missing educational distribution of population also restricts analyses aiming at estimating contributions of compositional change to the improvements in national longevity. This study proposes a transparent approach to solve the two methodological issues allowing to obtain robust education-specific mortality estimates and population weights.MethodsUsing nonparametric approach, we redistribute the unknown cases and extrapolate the mortality curves of these sub-populations with the help of population-level data on an aggregate level from the Human Mortality Database.ResultsWe present reconstructed and harmonized education-specific abridged and complete life tables for Sweden and Denmark covering 5-year-long periods from 1991–1995 to 2011–2015. The newly estimated life tables are in good agreement with the national life tables and show plausible age- and education-specific patterns. The observed changes in life expectancy by education suggest about the widening longevity gap between the highest and lowest educated for males and females in both countries.ConclusionsThe proposed simple and transparent method can be applied in similar country-specific cases showing large proportions of missing education or other socio-economic characteristics at older ages.

Highlights

Ensuring reliable and timely monitoring of mortality inequalities by socio-economic status has been a challenging task even for highly developed countries
One of the most important issues concerns the limited scope of electronic registers with respect to the accounting for numbers and characteristics of foreign-born individuals and identification of socio-economic status of older cohorts
Our study aims at filling these evidence and knowledge gaps by proposing a more transparent and statistically grounded general approach to solve the two methodological issues allowing to obtain robust education-specific mortality estimates and population weights for countries having the similar data restrictions

Summary

Introduction

Ensuring reliable and timely monitoring of mortality inequalities by socio-economic status has been a challenging task even for highly developed countries. Past and recent studies mention several limitations affecting the quality and scope of group-specific mortality estimates in Denmark and Sweden [8]. A recent study by [9] reported about overcoverage of migrants in the population register of Sweden In both Sweden and Denmark, educational registers still do not cover populations at older ages (born before 1915 in Sweden and born before 1922 in Denmark). These problems have important implications for studying mortality inequalities by education and require specific adjustments. The lack of classification by educational attainment in death and population exposure data at older ages is an important constraint for studying changes and patterns of mortality disparities by education in Denmark and Sweden. This study proposes a transparent approach to solve the two methodological issues allowing to obtain robust education-specific mortality estimates and popula‐ tion weights

Results

Discussion

Conclusion